Jimbo Fisher on final 48 hours of Florida State’s season, high expectations, NIU’s Rod Carey and this year’s team

Florida State had its final practice of the season on Sunday and its final walk through today.

“I think the last 48 hours are extremely important because it becomes mental preparation, and you’re putting yourself in the frame of mind to go play a football game,” Jimbo Fisher said today. “All the other festivities have been great, you’ve practiced but now it’s time to realize what the purpose, why you’re here. There’s a reason you’re here. All those things that happened to you during the week are because we have a game at the end of the week and we have to prepare for that and we have to mentally get yourself ready to prepare for a game against a great opponent who’s going to play very hard.”
Fisher hit on several topics in his last few interview sessions before Tuesday’s Orange Bowl against Northern Illinois. …

*On high expectations: “That’s the way the world is now, you never satisfy everyone. If you don’t win a national championship, they’re unhappy. I’m very pleased with our season, but I’m not satisfied and you should never be satisfied unless you win it all. But how many times do you actually win it all? That’s why you have so much change in our business. All those fans, if those kids were on that team would they think that season was a failure. Did he achieve everything he could achieve? No. but he did pretty dadgum good. If we keep winning 11, 12 games a year we’re going to win a championship.”

*On a piece of advice Bobby Bowden gave him: “Coach Bowden told me, he said, ‘you listen to the fans you’ll be sitting with them.”

*On NIU coach Rod Carey making his head coaching debut in the OB: “I think it’s going to be tougher next year than it is right now, because you’re already set in your routine of how you do things. They know how they’re going to do things, they have the same staff, they have the same people. You know what the kids can do. I think next year from a head coaching plan I think an organizational standpoint. … there’s a lot more work to do because now you put your stamp on the program.”

*On this year’s team: “This team is a very unique team and I think some of y’all saw it yesterday when we went to the hospital. They asked for a certain number of volunteers. Our bus got full. … I think we had 40-some guys go. … Those guys just believed in each other. They never turned on each other when everyone doubted them, they kept staying together and they won the first championship. What our seniors have done is built a bond around our team and they’ve taught those young guys you have to believe in each other when other people don’t and to keep that camaraderie. And there’s a genuine unity and love within this team for each other, one of the most unique that I’ve been around in the 25 years that I’ve been coaching.”

Carey was asked today if he tapped into former NIU head coach, Dave Doeren, for help on FSU. Doeren was hired this month at N.C. State, which is the only ACC team to have beaten FSU this season.

“He’s looked at the film, I’ve looked at the film, we compared notes,” Carfey said. “Dave is really great that way. But as far as the inside knowledge of it, I don’t think (it helps) a ton. But listen, Dave Doeren has helped me a ton through this. Yeah, so sit there and say that we haven’t talked about this game, yeah, we’ve talked a ton about it.”